Absorbent articles, such as sanitary napkins, pantiliners, and incontinence pads, are typically worn in the crotch region of an undergarment. These devices are designed to absorb and retain liquids and other discharges from the human body to prevent body and garment soiling. The aforementioned types of absorbent articles are typically placed in a garment such as the wearer's panty and worn between the wearer's legs, adjacent to the genital (or fluids discharge source) area of the body.
Conventional relatively thick, overnight, or extra protection sanitary napkin products currently marketed in Japan provide protection from soiling by utilizing a combination of increased product length and thickness (which may include a profiled or varied caliper). These products, however, are not believed to conform or fit to the body of the wearer during the entire period of the products usage. Specifically, these products typically have a pair of rear side flaps in the rear end region which is placed or adhered (if desired) to the inside surface of undergarments in use. However, the rear side flaps tend to cause bunching (or tend to be deformed or twisted) by a stress or friction which is generated between the rear side flaps and the undergarment during use. This tends to not only affect the comfortness (i.e., the comfort feeling) of the wearer but also cause a situation that these products can not be positioned at the right place during the entire use thereby causing leakage of body fluids.
Thus, there is a need for an absorbent article that has rear side flaps which can be effectively prevented from bunching. There is another need for a sanitary napkin that can improve the comfortness of the wearer during the entire use of the napkin.